Does LJ Hooker want you?

03 November 2016 Reporter

One of Australia’s biggest real estate groups reveals to REB what types of agents it wants working for its network. Do you fit the bill?

What type of agent is LJ Hooker aiming to attract as a brand?Grant Harrod, LJ Hooker: Our focus is definitely around customer experience. We want to attract agents that are interested in building a business and want to build a relationship with their customers that is all about experience.

All the research that we’ve done with consumers, with customers, is that they are of the view that the industry generally does a good job but it’s overly focused on itself. And as a result, there is no brand that stands above the rest today that you would say is the equivalent of say, Virgin, if that’s going to be an example of a very customer experience-centric brand.

That certainly is something that we’re very focused on. It’s why, in every transaction, we invite customers to provide feedback through our customer voice platform. The most prestigious award in our network now is customer experience, not just based entirely on sales because we see sales as an outcome to doing the right thing for your customer. You will always be a very successful agent if you have built a reputation around being there for your customer. And there is opportunity because it’s not something that the industry has tended to put enough focus on versus other industries.

If you look at the transformation that Qantas has gone through, now they are absolutely 100 per cent focused on trying to provide the best customer experience and our industry is not much different. It’s a complex industry with many moving parts, [therefore] there are going to be issues. And customers are realistic to those issues. They just want an agent that they know has got their back. They want an agent that they know is not just in it for the commission cheque, that’s in it to help them because it’s a highly emotive and stressful process.

They’re the agents we want to attract. We want to attract those that are committed to wanting to focus on making our brand, our network, recognised for being the most focused around customer experience.